Updated: Nioh 2 Review

I’m back with an updated Nioh 2 review because I realized after I posted the first one that I forgot important information to share. I apologize in advance if I make the same mistake. I can be a bumbling idiot a lot of times. This time I’ll go over three important aspects of the game to me: gameplay, character customization, and crafting. To me, those three are quite important to the game.Yes, character customization is important to a game because it allows players an extra choice. Playing as some generic white guy hasn’t been fun for a long time.

Now, let me start off with gameplay. It is so vast that I know I’ll definitely miss a lot. The important thing is health and stamina. Health is pretty straight forward. You have hit points so don’t try to get knocked down to zero. Heal whenever you can. Stamina is simple too. You attack, block, or sprint, then you use stamina. In Nioh 2 it’s called ki. It recharges so you don’t have to worry about running out and there are onmyo talismans that help with that. On to stances. The first stance is top stance. It uses the most ki but does the most damage. It’s also the slowest. There is mid stance which uses a moderate amount of ki, allows you to attack at a moderate pace, hit for a moderate amount of damage, and gives you the ability to recharge ki while guarding. Then there is low stance. It puts out the least amount of damage. However, it allows you to replenish more ki on dodge. The downside is that it takes away your dodge roll for a dash, which has less I-frames, but use less ki. The thing I love about the game is that no one stance is the best. They are just based on personal preference. Since I like tanking through enemies, I tend to use exclusively top stance. The neat thing about it though is that some weapons, like the odachi, allow you to change stances as part of your move set. Allowing you to go from mid to top. This is able to be used through combos that you unlock through the weapon skill trees. You can unlock different active or passive skills in the weapon skill tree. Some allow you to do two heavy attacks and then a light attack or two light attacks and then a heavy attack. These will come in handy. Especially when fighting against yokai. Most yokai have horns on their heads that can be destroyed to reduce their ki to zero. Learn what your best combos or attacks are from a stance that allows you to break them quicker. Once a yokai is out of ki, you can keep them stunned with hits until they die. That can really turn the tide in a fight if you get in a hole quickly.

Now onto character customization. It is the most in-depth character customization I have ever seen. Google “Nioh 2 character creation” and you’ll see anything from Handsome Squidward to Solid Snake (or whatever Snake. I don’t give a fuck. Generic white guy and all that.). The awesome thing about it is that when you are choosing what part of your face to change it will highlight the area making it easier for you to see your changes and make them more precise. You can also get character creation codes and put them in. These are codes you can find online that people post so if you want to use the Kratos they made or the Harley Quinn they made, then you can. Not only that, you can customize your yokai form to a degree. It’s nowhere near as vast, however, it does allow you to give your forms nice little touches that you might not usually get.

Now, let’s talk about my favorite mechanic, the crafting. This game is the best crafting mechanic in a looter game. It’s not going to beat Monster Hunter-like games, for obvious reasons, but it allows you to actually perfect your builds. It definitely relies on RNG, but if you get the right role then that is all the better. To help with crafting, they added rarity and grace inheritance to weapons. That means, if you find a set piece with grace inheritance on it, but would like it on your current piece of gear, then you can transfer over that grace. It destroys the item with grace inheritance on it, but now your awesome gear just became better. The added thing it does means that it crafting is not useless in endgame. I’d wish more games would do that. Hell, I’d wish WOW would do that, but they are too busy bowing down to the vocal minority that is the raid community. We get it, you think MMORPG means you have to play with people and not that it actually means you’re playing in a persistent world. I had to throw that little rant in because it annoys me. Though, Blizzard is a trash company so I guess it’s only fitting they listen to the trash members of their community. Anyways, before I get too sidetracked, I absolutely love the crafting in this game. It is not useless at all. Unless you have shitty RNG, then good luck.

Once again, Nioh 2 is my perfect game and I hope that has come across inboth reviews. Please give it a try at a friend’s house or pick it up on sale. I would say it’s worth every penny, but I also know not everyone can just pay full price for even one game. I hope to bring you more reviews. Playing Ori and the Blind Forest so be sure to look out for that review coming soon. Hopefully next week. Have fun!